Present day lidar systems are typically thought of as a combination of laser technologies with existing radar-type range and direction detection systems. Commercial systems have been used for high altitude aerial 360 degree scanning of landscapes, and similar scanning operations, as their lasers offer no optical threat to scanned individuals. An important limitation to the typical laser based lidar systems is that they must limit direct exposure to an individual observer, so as to avoid burning the retinas of the observed individuals. These systems operate at great range, and thus have little need for the sensing of instantaneous changes. Amateur systems broaden this technology to less-harmful light based sensor systems that can be implemented more locally, but are limited by structural constraints that can limit the operation of the system both spatially and speed-wise.
It is also known to using other than highly concentrated laser light for lidar, it is also known to use not-laser light, such as from an LED, to operate a lidar system. As a highly local observation system, this system needs to be extremely time sensitive, as changes in local conditions can be highly active, and need to be detected extremely rapidly, and over a wide range of observation.
Existing systems, such as ones based on fixed wires or rotating mirrors, limit the range of viewing of lidar systems, typically having blind spots and/or limitations on 360 degree rotations. Moreover, past attempts to overcome these limitations are based on electro/mechanical technologies that limit bandwidth communications and the related data transfer of information that needed to be processed to calculate range and directional information to access the full potential of the lidar system.
It is understood there exists a need for improved lidar systems that operate over 360 degrees and allow for safe interactions with observed individuals, and that further provide for high scanning data rates to provide for significantly real-time observation.